Safety shield for cutting and creasing apparatus



G. J. WOLNEZ Dec. 21, 1965 SAFETY SHIELD FOR CUTTING AND CREASING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 24, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

GEORGE J. WOLNEZ BY j ATTORNEY Dec. 21, 1965 G. J. WOLNEZ 3,224,314

SAFETY SHIELD FOR CUTTING AND CREASING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 24, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. GEORGE J. WOLNEZ WGM ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,224,314 SAFETY SHIELD FOR CUTTING AND CREASING APPARATUS George J. Wolnez, Sacramento, Califl, assignor to Aerojetgfileral Corporation, Azusa, Calif., a corporation of Filed Nov. 24, 1964, Ser. No. 413,566 Claims. (Cl. 83-522) This application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. application Serial No. 173,910, filed February 19, 1962, by George I. Wolnez, entitled Apparatus, and now abandoned. This invention relates generally to safety devices and is particularly concerned with safety shields for cutting and creasing equipment. The principal object of my invention is to provide a safety device which is foolproof in the manual operation of cutting and creasing equipment.

Safety guards on machines and work places in general are an important phase of accident prevention. Manufacturers of machines are now more cognizant of the practice of guarding moving parts of machinery. Safety guards and shields have been incorporated as a usual matter in moving and power driven machinery, as contrasted to some hand operated devices Where their use has been largely overlooked. Because of the constant endeavor to cut down on industrial accidents, physical safeguards are especially valuable for protecting inexperienced workers who are usually more prone to accidental injury than seasoned workers. The present invention helps eliminate the possible accidents for. hand operated equipment regardless of the experience of the employee.

Some hand operated equipment such as cutting, severing, or creasing devices quite often are either void of safeguards or have such poorly constructed guards, that there is little to prevent injury to accident prone people. Or Where guards are present, they are of such a construction that they can be disregarded in the event the employee Wishes to defeat the purpose of the guard. One example of an ineffective guard for such things as paper cutters is a simple wire-like guard which is positioned adjacent the cutting edge of the cutter. This guard allows paper to be advanced to the cutting edge and should prevent the operators fingers from contacting the blade or the cutting edge, if it is properly used. However, this guard does not prevent the operator from inadvertently, or absent-mindedly, placing his fingers over the guard and thereby incurring lacerations or amputation of the fingers. Because of the simplicity of operation, quite often the operator of such a cutter, disregards safety in an effort to perform his job quickly and inadvertently injures himself.

In accordance with my present invention, I have overcome undesired features of safety guards in present use on cutting, severing, and creasing devices. More particularly, the present invention contemplates a safety shield that will protect the absent-minded and careless operator who could injure himself through lack of attention. The present invention provides a safety shield which is foolproof and constructed to make it almost impossible to defeat the purpose of the shield without intentionally injuring yourself. Further, this invention does not limit either the use of the mode of operation of the cutting or creasing device.

Other features of the present invention are a stop for the cutting blade preventing accidental manipulation of the cutting blade to a dangerous height. Still another feature of the present invention is a paper gage which is in corporated in the safety shield allowing the operator to cut or crease the paper of a known number of sheets thereby increasing production rate. Still another feature is that the present invention may be installed on existing cutters or creasers.

Briefly, the present invention is an upstanding shield positioned in spaced relation to a cutter blade. The shield is in spaced relation to the cutter base allowing an operator to slip material to be cut beneath the shield and yet prevent the contact of the operators fingers or hand with the cutting edge or blade. The shield has a stop at its uppermost portion which prevents the operator from raising the blade to a height where he could accidentally injure himself. A paper gage is also incorporated in the shield to allow the shield height to be adjusted and the operator to cut a known number of sheets of paper at a single setting.

Other objects and features of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one form of the present invention as adapted to a paper cutter illustrating in particular the safety shield, blade stop, and gage;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the paper gage illustrated in FIG. 1 used in combination with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the gage illustrated in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 represents a modified form of the invention.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the present invention is shown as adapted to a commercial paper cutter. It should be noted that the present invention may be used in combination with other hand and machine operated paper cutters,

rotary cutters, power guillotine cutters, hand power guillotine cutters, container manufacturing machinery such as corner cutters, corner stayers, paper box ending machines, creasers, and in printing machinery such as platen presses and punch and line perforators.

\ The paper cutter 10 comprises a means for supporting the material to be cut as for example the base 12 which has a plurality of horizontal and vertical indicating indentations 14, 16 to aid in positioning the paper as it is being cut. A rule or straight edge 18 is fixedly attached to the upper portion of the base 12 along one edge and inch marks or other suitable measuring means may be provided along the length of this straight edge. A steel insert 20 may be inserted along one edge of the base 12 to coact with the movable blade 22 in order to cut the paper or paper products in a sharp line.

The blade 22 is of a generally curved configuration having a handle 24 at one end and a pivoting means 26 at its opposite end. The blade 22 is mounted upon a pivot pin that is supported Within the bracket 28. This bracket.

28 is fixedly attached to the side of the base 12. A pair of spiral springs 30, 32 are attached to the blade 22 for aiding rotative motion of the blade in either clockwise or counterclockwise movement.

Referring again to FIG. 1, an important aspect of the present invention is the safety shield assembly 34 which incorporates a shield 36, a blade stop 38, and an adjustable gage 40.

The safety shield 36 is a vertically disposed guard constructed preferably of a transparent or translucent material allowing the operator to have a field of vision through the guard. However, it is entirely possible for the invention to operate in its fullest aspects to use a material which is opaque, rather than translucent, such as wood, metal, plastic, etc.

The shield 36 is adjustably mounted on the base 12 and attached to brackets 42, 44. The shield 36 is positioned horizontally to the cutting edge of the insert 20 of the base 12 and also vertically positioned in spaced relation to the surface of the base. A first L shaped bracket 42 is fixedly attached to the base 12 by a pair of screws 46. Two slots 48, 50 formed in the upstanding leg of bracket 42 having bolts 52 passing therethrough, allow the shield 36 to be adjusted vertically. A second L shaped bracket 44 is slidably attached to the edge of base 12 by screws 54, and fixedly attached to the rim 56 and shield 36. Slots 58, 60 in bracket 44 allow the shield to be adjusted vertically.

Another aspect of the present invention is best illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawings. The adjusting device for the shield assembly 34 comprises a step gage 64 and an indicator 65 positioned at the ends of the shield 36.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 the step gage 64 has a series of flats 66, 68, 70, 72 each flat being a known distance from the gage bottom 74. Elongated slot 76 and enlarged slot 78 extend through the length of gage 64. A bolt (not shown), passing through the gage slot, attaches the gage 64 to the base 12 and allows the gage to be adjusted and the appropriate gage flats to be positioned under shield 36.

As shown in FIG. 1, the height indicator 65 comprises an arrow 80 on the shield 36 and a plurality of marker indentations 82 on the edge of the bracket 42. As the step gage 64 is moved to adjust one end of the shield 36, corresponding indentations 82 on the bracket 42 are aligned with arrow 80 to place the bottom edge of shield 36 parallel to the base 12.

In this manner the operator may use the opening between the shield and the paper cutter base to act as a paper gage. That is, the operator forces a plurality of papers through the guard, it gages the number of sheets that pass therethrough prior to cutting the paper. In operation, the operator would take the stack of papers and force them through the opening between the guard and the base of the paper cutter to in effect gage the number of sheets to be cut. After the cutting operation the number of sheets are known and can be collated and/or stacked by the operator, as the case may be.

As best illustrated in FIG. 1, another aspect is the provision of the blade stop 38 which is formed from the upper portion of the rim 56. Stop 38 extends horizontally over the blade 22 and provides an upper limit for the movement of the blade. Stop 38 may be formed integrally with the rim 56. By limiting the movement of blade 22 to the area protected by the shield 36, the tendency toward accidental lacerations or cuts is considerably reduced. Itshould be noted that most hand operated paper cutters and creasers have blades which operators frequently move to a vertical position while adjusting the paper to be out prior to moving the blade downwardly to perform the cutting operation. It is evident that without a stop of the sort described here on such cutters, the blade could be moved to an upper position and dropped accidentally injuring the operators hand. Using a stop in combination with the guard as in the present invention, it is almost inconceivable that the blade could be put into a position that could injure the operator either accidentally or intentionally.

In FIG. 4 there is shown another embodiment of the invention. As before, a base 12 is provided with a cutter blade 22 pivotally mounted thereto by means 26. A safety shield 36 is disposed in protective relation in the cutting area, and it is in connection with the specific mounting means for the shield that this embodiment differs from the first described one above. An L-shaped bracket 82 is secured to the outer edge of the base 12 by screws 84 in a manner similar to the way in which the bracket 44 of FIG. 1 is mounted. An upstanding support 86 is fixedly attached to the face surface of the shield 36 inwardly of the edge thereof by threaded members 88. The extremity of the support 86 is also secured to the bracket 82 by a bolt 90, for example, serving to maintain the shield in a generally upright firmly positioned relation to the base.

The other end of the shield immediately adjacent the pivoting means 26 is affixed to base 12 by L-bracket 92. This bracket is connected to the base by a pair of screws 94, and to the shield by members 94 passing through horizontally extending slots 96 for reception within threaded openings in the shield.

A separate L-shaped member 98 has one leg mounted on the edge of the shield by means 100. The other leg of the member extends beyond the general plane of the shield in obstructing to the cutter blade serving as an upper limit, or stop. It is important to note that the bracket 98 is so located on the shieldas to at all times during cutting be remote from the handle of the cutter blade and, of course, the operator's hand performing the cutting operation.

Additional advantages in safety of operation accrue to this form of the invention in view of the fact that both the support 86 and the limit member 98 are remote from the path of travel of the operators hand during a cutting operation. This insures against accidental injury to the hand and/ or fingers during use of the cutter from contact with these metal parts.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be understood that they are only illustrative and that various other modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A safety guard for a severing and creasing device having a pivotal knife acting upon a base comprising: an upstanding shield positioned in spaced relation with said knife, said upstanding shield being adjustably mountedupon said base, an adjustable thickness gage positioned adjacent said shield, a projection attached to the upper portion of said shield positioned over the path of the pivotal knife, said shield positioned in spaced relation with said base whereby the knife is not accessible by the operator of the severing and creasing device and further the operator of the device can determine the thickness or gage of material being severed.

2. A safety guard for a severing and creasing device having a pivotal knife acting upon a base comprising: an upstanding shield positioned in spaced relation with said knife, a means for limiting the knife movement attached to the upper portion of said shield and positioned over the path of the pivotal knife, said shield adjustably positioned in spaced relation with said base, and selectively adjustable means for gaging thickness in juxtaposition with said shield having a plurality of predetermined fixed thickness settings whereby the knife is not accessible by the operator of the severing and creasing device and further the operator can determine the thickness or gage of the material being severed.

3. A safety shield for severing or creasing devices having a pivotable cutting or creasing member acting in combination with a fixed base comprising an upstanding shield and a pair of brackets adjustably attaching said shield to said base, gage means on one of said brackets for indicating the thickness of material being processed, and step means on said base adjacent the other of said brackets, the bracket having said gage means positioned adjacent the point of pivot of said member, the bracket having said step means positioned on said base remote from said gage means, said gage means and said step means cooperating to locate said shield to said base in a uniform spaced relation corresponding to the thickness of material to be processed.

4. The device claimed in claim 3 wherein the bracket having said gage means includes slot means to permit adjustment of said shield in a plane perpendicular to the plane of said base, and said step means is movable in a line perpendicular to the plane of said shield to present a stop thereto.

5. Safety shield apparatus for use with severing or creasing devices having an elongated cutting or creasing member, one extremity of which member is pivotally connected to a base having a fiat surface, and operating power is manually applied to the member in the region of the other end thereof, comprising:

a sheet-like shield having at least one straight edge;

a first bracket mounted on the flat surface of the base adjacent to the point of pivotal connection of the cutting or creasing member for adjustably securing the shield in a generally upright condition relative to the flat surface substantially parallel and slightly spaced from the pivot plane of the cutting member; a second bracket adjustably mounted to the base and secured to the shield, the second bracket being secured to a major face portion of the shield entirely inwardly of the outermost edge thereof;

said first bracket being provided with indicia for measuring materials to be cut or severed; and

an L-shaped limit bracket carried by the shield, intermediate the first and second brackets, having one arm thereof projecting outwardly from the shield in obstructing relation to the cutting or creasing member serving to limit the total pivoting movement of the cutting member and confining this movement within the major area of the shield.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,506,610 5/ 1950 Mueller 83-545 2,518,076 8/1950 Scherig 83-607 FOREIGN PATENTS 364,117 12/ 1931 England.

20 ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. 

1. A SAFETY GUARD FOR A SEVERING AND CREASING DEVICE HAVING A PIVOTAL KNIFE ACTING UPON A BASE COMPRISING: AN UPSTANDING SHIELD POSITIONED IN SPACED RELATION WITH SAID KNIFE, SAID UPSTANDING SHIELD BEING ADJUSTABLY MOUNTED UPON SAID BASE, AN ADJUSTABLE THICKNESS GAGE POSITIONED ADJACENT SAID SHIELD, A PROJECTION ATTACHED TO THE UPPER PORTION OF SAID SHIELD POSITIONED OVER THE PATH OF THE PIVOTAL KNIFE, SAID SHIELD POSITIONED IN SPACED RELATION WITH SAID BASE WHEREBY THE KNIFE IS NOT ACCESSIBLE BY THE OPERATOR OF THE SEVERING AND CREASING DEVICE AND FURTHER THE OPERATOR OF THE DEVICE CAN DETERMINE THE THICKNESS OR GAGE OF MATERIAL BEING SEVERED. 